Europe's support for Ukraine comes at expense of millions of others: Report

Europe's largest donors of international aid have increased their focus on Ukrainian refugees at the expense of millions of others around the world who rely on them for food, health care, and education, according to a report.

In an article, the US-based magazine Foreign Policy said European countries as the biggest donors of international aid have in recent years been providing over 50 billion euros a year to some under-developed countries dependent on foreign aid.

However, after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine early this year to protect itself from US-led NATO military alliance's provocative moves, the aid earmarked for other countries was gradually cut and pumped into the war in Ukraine and the resulting crisis.

Money being splurged on Ukraine and the Ukrainian refugees have come at the expense of millions of others in need of healthcare, education, and food.

The aid cut has come amid a worsening food crisis in the world, with people in under-developed countries bearing the worst brunt of it.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), 80 percent of the people in need of humanitarian aid live in 20 nations. 

Foreign Policy cited the ICRC as saying it was "vital that support for refugees fleeing Ukraine not come at the expense of millions of refugees and other people in crisis around the world.”

"More than 300 million people, half of them children, are in need of desperate aid in some of the world’s poorest and most conflict-ridden regions," the report said, adding that they have been "deprioritized" following the war in Ukraine.

Under the rules of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the FP report states, the costs of hosting refugees are included in the foreign-aid contribution of a nation.

Despite the fact that half the Somalian population is facing famine, last year the African country was able to receive 68 percent of its requested funding after a year, whereas Ukraine received the same amount in a matter of six weeks.

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European countries have exhibited double standards regarding sheltering refugees from Ukraine and other nations, giving priority to the former. 

Denmark holds a hardnosed stand on Syrian immigrants but reversed its strict asylum policy only to host Ukrainian refugees. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen justified the reversal and said her policy had always been to support refugees from neighboring nations.

 As governments have not been clear about the specific causes that have been abandoned to meet refugee needs, the future of millions is at stake.

In 2020, London cut all “non-essential” aid reducing its ODA (official development assistance) from 0.7 percent to 0.5 percent, while redirecting the remaining fund to its domestic programs.

According to the Centre for Global Development, a large amount of the reduced aid was spent on housing Ukrainians in the country.

“The money we have, a large part of it, has now been siphoned for Ukrainian refugees and others. Therefore, the actual amount of money that we’ve left for pure development in places like Africa now is very little," former British premier Tony Blair was quoted as saying by the Observer.

This comes as human rights and anti-war activists say the Western powers are hell-bent on fanning the flames of war in Ukraine, now in its tenth month, as it helps their arms industries flourish.

Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine in late February, following Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements and Moscow’s recognition of the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

At the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin said one of the goals of what he called a “special military operation” was to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.

Since the outbreak of the war, Western countries have supplied large consignments of heavy weaponry to Ukraine, with the US topping the chart of supplies, despite Russia's repeated warnings that it would only prolong the war.

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In terms of overall spending on direct military support to Ukraine, the US has committed $18.5bn, far more than any other country (to 20 November).

Germany, the UK, and Poland have pledged the second, third, and fourth largest amounts to the war-ravaged country, prompting many to argue that they seek to drag the war much to the chagrin of Ukrainians. 

Russian ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said last month that Washington sought to prolong the war in Ukraine to reap profit from its sale of military equipment and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to European countries.

"The White House cannot escape responsibility for prolonging the conflict and killing innocent people. However, the United States continues with its maniacal persistence to adhere to the tactics of war of attrition by exhausting everyone — Ukrainians, Russians, Europeans as well as ordinary Americans," he said.

"There are several reasons for this, one of them being the presence of economic interest. The desire to 'skim the cream' through the mass sale of military equipment and LNG supplies: only business, nothing personal," Antonov added.

However, as the war intensifies, the arsenals are increasingly depleting, particularly in the United States, according to reports. 

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